Yankees Have Rocky Mountain Low

If I told you that the Yankees scored 13 runs in 2 games, you'd guess that they won at least 1 of them, right?

Yeah, about that...

On Tuesday night, the Yankees began a brief 2-game series at Coors Field in Denver, against the Colorado Rockies. They scored 10 runs. And lost.

Nathan Eovaldi didn't have it, giving up 6 runs in 4 innings in the thin mountain air. Kirby Yates and Richard Bleier each allowed an additional 3, and Andrew Miller 1 more. That's 13 runs, on 15 hits and 5 walks (1 of them intentional), plus an error and 2 wild pitches. What a mess.

A good pitching performance, or even a half-decent one, and the Yankees would have won it, but they didn't get it. They closed to within 6-3 in the 6th, and hung 7 on the Rox in the 8th to make it 12-10. Didi Gregorious had 2 hits, including a home run, and 3 RBIs. Jacoby Ellsbury, Starlin Castro, Chase Headley and Aaron Hicks also had 2 hits each, and Rob Refsnyder had 3. But the run that Miller allowed in the bottom of the 8th let the air out of the balloon.

Rockies 13, Yankees 10. WP: Jorge De La Rosa (3-4). SV: Carlos Estevez (2). LP: Eovaldi (6-3).

*

So yesterday afternoon, it was a day game after a night game, and that's never a good sign for the Yankees: They nearly always lose those, or so it seems.

Ivan Nova started, and he wasn't much better than Eovaldi, allowing 5 runs on 10 hits and 2 walks in just 5 innings.

The Yankees actually led 2-1 as late as the bottom of the 5th, but Nova fell apart. They got to within 5-3 in the 6th. Again, Gregorius and Hicks had 2 hits apiece. But, once again, one of the Yankees' supposedly solid relievers allowed an 8th inning run that killed the momentum. This time, it was Aroldis Chapman.

Rockies 6, Yankees 3. WP: Chad Bettis (5-5). SV: Estevez (3). LP: Nova (5-4).

*

The Yankees are now 31-34, 6 1/2 games behind the Baltimore Orioles and the Boston Red Sox (who are tied with each other) in the American League Eastern Division -- 7 in the loss column. On the other hand, nobody seems to be running away with the Division, either: The Sox and O's are going .578, a 94-win pace. Neither has a "team of destiny" aura about them.

Theoretically, the Yankees are about to catch a break: They're now in Minneapolis to start a 4-game series against the Minnesota Twins, who are only 20-45. In all of MLB, only the Atlanta Braves have a worse record (20-46).

Here are the projected starting pitchers:

* Tonight, 8:10 PM (7:10 local time): CC Sabathia vs. Kyle Gibson.

* Tomorrow, 8:10 PM: Masahiro Tanaka vs. Pat Dean.

* Saturday, 2:10 PM: Michael Pineda vs. Ricky Nolasco.

* Sunday,  2:10 PM: Eovaldi vs. Ervin Santana.

Come on you Bombers!